Old Irish Song Author(S): Alfred Perceval Graves Source: the Celtic Review, Vol

Old Irish Song Author(s): Alfred Perceval Graves Source: The Celtic Review, Vol. 7, No. 26 (May, 1911), pp. 174-187 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30070399 Accessed: 22-06-2016 15:39 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Celtic Review This content downloaded from 128.104.46.206 on Wed, 22 Jun 2016 15:39:11 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 174 THE CELTIC REVIEW regarded as a native of Dyfed, for we are told that, after her marriage at her father's court, she and Pwyll set out towards Dyfed. It is quite possible that legends concern- ing Rhiannon prevailed in the districts of Maesyfed and Ardudwy, for Eveydd, the name of Rhiannon's father, still survives in the name Maesyfed, for Maes Hyveyd, and in the Mabinogi of Branwen the fabulous birds of Rhiannon are connected with Harlech in Ardudwy. Moreover, according to one legend the grave of Pryderi is said to be at Maentwrog, in the same district, showing that the legend of Rhiannon was widespread in Wales. (To be continued) OLD IRISH SONG' ALFRED PERCEVAL GRAVES, M.A. IN the dim morning twilight of Ancient Erin, legend describes her Fili's, or musical bards, as constant attendants upon the king and chieftain. As Mr. Alfred M. Williams, the American critic, pictur- esquely puts the tradition, 'Surrounded by the Orfiddy, or instrumental musicians, who fulfilled the function of a modern military band, they watched his progress in battle for the purpose of describing his feats in arms, composed birthday odes and epithalamia, aroused the spirits of clans- men with war songs, and lamented the dead in the caoines, or keens, which are still heard in the wilder and more primi- tive regions of Ireland.' We must, of course, discount much of the legendary colour which enthusiasts like Walker take on trust. But this is the picture of the early Irish bard presented to us by the chroniclers. Amongst other privileges, he wore I A lecture to the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Basil Woodd Smith, Esq., F.R.A.S., F.S.A., Vice-President, in the chair. This content downloaded from 128.104.46.206 on Wed, 22 Jun 2016 15:39:11 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms OLD IRISH SONG 175 a tartan with only one shade of colour less than that upon the king's robe, and his assassination involved a blood- penalty inferior only to the royal eric. But before attain- ing such high honours, he had to satisfy the moral requirements of 'purity of hand, bright without wounding, purity of mouth without poisonous satire, purity of learning without reproach, purity as a husband in wedlock.' He had, moreover, to pass through a decidedly arduous courtship of the Muse before he was entitled to claim her favour; indeed, some writers go so far as to say that, like the patriarch, he had to serve seven years for her, commit- ting to memory an almost incredible number of earlier compositions, and giving the closest study to the laws of verse, before he could become a poet on his own account. When it is added that these laws of Irish verse, as finally formulated by the early Celtic professors, were the most complicated ever invented-not only limiting the sense within the stanza, but fixing the amount of alliteration and the number of syllables in each line, to say nothing of their assonantal requirements-we may well understand that although Early Irish verse may be granted, according to Professor Atkinson, to be the most perfectly harmoniuos combinations of sounds that the world has ever known, it must also be conceded that Irish 'direct metre' was the most difficult kind of verse under the sun-the despairing opinion of another leading Irish philologist. Dr. Whitley Stokes's comment is 'that in almost all the ancient Celtic poetry, substance is ruthlessly sacrificed to form, and the observance of the rigorous rules of metre seems regarded as an end in itself.' The consequence of such an artificial system, combined with the high privileges of the bardic caste, resulted in the multiplication of minor parts to a degree which would have paralysed all Mr. Traill's efforts to keep pace with them, had he been a contemporary critic. O'Curry quotes this droll account of their pecuniary dealings: 'At this time we are told that the poets became This content downloaded from 128.104.46.206 on Wed, 22 Jun 2016 15:39:11 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 176 THE CELTIC REVIEW more troublesome and importunate than ever. They were in the habit of travelling about the country in companies of thirty, composed of pupils and teachers, and each company had a silver pot, called " the Pot of Avarice," having chains of bronze attached to it by golden hooks. It was sus- pended from the points of the spears of nine of the company, which were thrust through the links at the other end of the chains. The reason that the pot was called the Pot of Avarice was because it was into it that whatever of gold or silver they received was put, and, whilst the poem was being chanted, the best nine musicians in the company played music round the pot. If their minstrelsy was well received, and adequately paid for, they left their blessing behind them in verse; if it was not, they satirised their audience in the most virulent terms of which their poetical vocabulary was capable; and, be it observed, that to the satire of an Irish bard, to whom there still clung in the popular belief the mystical attributes of the druid, there attached a fatal malignity.' At the time of the conversion of Ireland to the Christian faith, the bards were said to number a third of the male population, and, in 590 A.D., a Synod was held at Drumceatt, by Aed, king of Ulster, which greatly reduced their forces. Indeed, such was the popular irritation against them, that had it not been for the friendly intervention of the states- man-poet, Colum Cille, they would probably have been banished altogether. The Fili, or bard, no doubt was a minstrel as well as a poet, in the first instance, but in the course of time there would appear to have been a further bardic differentiation, and we learn that perfection in the three Musical Feats, or three styles of playing, gave the dignity of Ollamh, or Doctor of Music, to the professors of the harp. Now what were the three Musical Feats ? Here they are well described in a weird old folk tale. Lugh (the Tuatha da Danann king), and the Daghda (their great chief and druid), and Ogma (their bravest This content downloaded from 128.104.46.206 on Wed, 22 Jun 2016 15:39:11 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms OLD IRISH SONG 177 champion), followed the Fomorians and their leader from the battlefield of Moytura, because they had carried off the Daghda's harper, Uaithne by name. The pursuers reached the banqueting house of the Fomorian chiefs, and there found Breas, the son of Elathan, and Elathan the son of Delbath, and also the Daghda's harp hanging upon the wall. This was the harp in which the music was spell- bound, so that it would not answer, when called forth, until the Daghda evoked it, when he said: 'Come, Durdabla; come, Coircethairchuir the two names of the harp. Come, Samhan; come, Camh, from the mouths of harps and pouches and pipes. The harp came forth from the wall then, and killed nine persons in its passage; and it came to the Daghda, and he played for them the three musical feats which give distinction to a harper, viz., the Suaintraighe (which, from its deep murmuring, caused sleep), the Geantraighe (which, from its merriment, caused laughter), and the Golltraighe (which, from its melting plain- tiveness, caused crying). He played them the Golltraighe, until their women cried tears; and he played them the Gean- traighe, until their women and youths burst into laughter; he played them the Suaintraighe, until the entire host fell fell asleep. It was through that sleep that they (the three champions) escaped from those Fomorians who were desirous to slay them.' This passage is of threefold interest. It indicates the popular belief in the introduction of music into Ireland by the Tuatha da Danann, a mysterious race, by some regarded as an offshoot of the Danai, whom tradition declares to have conquered and civilised the country, and then to have disappeared from it into fairyland. Again, it contains the first reference in Irish literature to the harp or cruit, destined to become our national instrument. Lastly, it describes three styles of Irish music, of each of which we have characteristic examples that have descended to the present day. For the Geantraighe, which was pro- vocation of mirth and frolic and excited spirit, is repre- VOL. VII.

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